One of the most important systems you need to put in place is one that makes communicating with prospects and new clients straightforward.

An effective system should include:

Information pack – an outline of your working practices, services and rates, which you send to prospective clients interested in your services.

Prospective client questionnaire – a document in which you collate all the information you need to know about your prospect. It should be a guide to the support a prospective client need might need.

Client consultation – your fact-finding process, and a list of detailed questions to ask prospective clients.

Welcome pack – gives new clients all the information they need before they start working with you. Outline your standard operating procedures and pre-empt any questions you think they may have.

‘Pay As You Go’ contract – for work carried out on an ad-hoc basis, or as a one-off project.

Retainer contract – for clients for whom you provide regular, monthly VA support.

Terms and conditions – includes details regarding payment, confidentiality, omissions, etc. These are a vital part of your process as they tell clients how you operate.

New client questionnaire – once new clients come on board, it is useful to get some basic details from them. A questionnaire is a good way to ensure that you get all the information you require.

New customer checklist – use this to make sure so you do not miss anything.

Proposal – detailed proposal, which you can send, if requested, especially to larger companies.

In short, social media is a term that encapsulates a number of online communication platforms, which make it easy for people not only to publish their own news and views but also to comment on those posted by others. It is a form of online networking.

Why Are Social Media Important?
Social media have provided a platform upon which people can share their opinions, views and grievances with anyone around the world. Those who use social media often become highly influential, are seen as experts in their own spheres, and can attract large audiences of people who share an interest in their particular areas of expertise.

Communities of like-minded people are forming around common interests over the web, regardless of where they are based in the world, because the regular restrictions of geographical locations do not apply.

How Can Social Media Help My Business?
There are various social media platforms you can use to deliver messages to your readers and followers, which we will look at through the remainder of this series. But before embarking on any marketing activity, it is important to know why it is useful.

Social media are instant, so your messages can be delivered as they happen. And, most importantly, it is interactive – you are actually inviting comment, reaction and suggestion. Of course, the most important point to remember is that the search engines love social media because its content is current and fresh. So, your comments will be picked up by the search engines… How exciting that is!

For about networking online and offline take a look at the Networking for Virtual Assistants Online Course here: http://vasuccessgroup.co.uk/virtual-assistant-online-courses/networking-for-virtual-assistants/
 

Download it now at: http://vasuccessgroup.co.uk/virtual-assistant-freebies/interviews/
 

Make contact within 24 hours
If you got on well with people you meet, and felt a connection, call them to reintroduce yourself. If you feel uncomfortable about telephoning, send an email to say that you enjoyed meeting them.

Making contact again will make you stand out from the other people they met at the event. You will be the one who comes to mind if they need the services you can provide. They are also likely to recommend you to their contacts, too.

Arrange one-to-one meetings with people with whom you connect
This should be an informal chat, perhaps over coffee, when you learn about each other and start to build a business relationship.

The aim of this initial one-to-one meeting is not to sell your services or products; it is about building a relationship. So, keep it relaxed and just ask questions to learn more about the person and his or her business. This achieves the best results.

Introduce people to your network
When you attend an event, keep in mind those in your network who could be of help to the people you meet. You can then introduce them at a later event or by email. People will think that you have a wide range of valuable connections, and you will gain a reputation as a worthwhile contact.

If you follow this advice, you will be raising your profile in the local business community and promoting your business at the same time!
 

Oh, no! Panic! What information do you need to give them about you and your business and how it all works? What questions should you ask them? How do you cover yourself? What terms and conditions should you have? Contract… What contracts?

Relax; it’s all here in the New Client Document Templates Pack. Simply cut and paste in your business details and you are ready to go!

Get a New Client Document Templates Pack here: http://vasuccessgroup.co.uk/virtual-assistant-document-templates/
 

11. Collect business cards from people you meet, and then email each of them asking if you can add them to your newsletter list. Do not add them without their permission, as this will not win you any friends.

12. Host back copies of your newsletter on your website as an archive. At the foot of each article, include a link to your sign up page with a message to ‘sign up to our newsletter for more articles like these’.

13. When you have added previous newsletters to your website, Twitter the link to the article page. Make sure there is a link to ‘sign up for more articles like these’ at the bottom of the article page.

14. When you have added previous newsletters to your website, add the page address to your Facebook status. Make sure there is a link to ‘sign up for more articles like these’ at the bottom of the article page.

15. Include a link to your newsletter sign up page on your Facebook profile and from time to time include it in your status. The day that you have sent out your latest issue is a great time to do this.

We have written a whole load of articles that you can reproduce in your newsletter. Download them today for free at: http://vasuccessgroup.co.uk/virtual-assistant-freebies/articles/
 

Telephone answering
This can be a really popular, but you must consider whether you want to provide the service yourself, or if it something you would prefer to pass on to a fellow VA with whom you have forged a partnership arrangement. I do offer the service, although, I do not do it myself as I am often out and about, so I cannot guarantee the quality of service that my clients deserve. However, I do have a VA partner who is more than happy to do this type of work.

If you do offer this service, it needs to be from 9am to 5pm as a minimum, so think hard whether it is something you want to do yourself before you start advertising the service.

Website design
This is a specialist skill and something that is charged at a higher rate. Before offering this service, ask yourself if you possess the necessary skills, or whether you would need to outsource the work.

Another service you could offer is a maintenance retainer package, whereby your clients pay in advance for maintenance of their sites.

Legal Virtual Assistant
A legal virtual assistant is someone who works with solicitors on either an ad hoc or regular basis, providing all the services of a legal secretary.

What will you add to your VA business?
 

To give a great impression straight away, it is important to ask the right questions at the first meeting with your potential client, before they sign up. You need to ascertain where you can be most useful to them. What are their weak points? What work do they continually put off, either because there is no time or because they do not enjoy it? Find out what their plans are for their business. What do they want to achieve?

Once the client has come onboard, you need to maintain the momentum with scheduled meetings as an ongoing process. This applies to both regular and ad-hoc clients. By having detailed monthly ‘catch-up’ meetings, either in person or by telephone, you can identify how much of their forthcoming work you can help them with.

For some really great documents to help you both with initial client consultations and ongoing client reviews, take a look at New Client Pack and Client Management Pack at: http://vasuccessgroup.co.uk/virtual-assistant-document-templates/

For help with your Client Consultation, check out the podcast at: http://vasuccessgroup.co.uk/virtual-assistant-teleseminars-webinars/
 

Check out this great article about Growing Your Virtual Assistant Business.
Visit http://vasuccessgroup.co.uk/virtual-assistant-freebies/articles
 

The key to a successful and thriving VA business is to be specific and narrow your target market, because ultimately it is easier to market a smaller prospective client base. Believe it or not, marketing to fewer people is easy, because you can target your approach, which will be much more cost-effective.

If you target your message to everyone, how can you make it relevant?
If you are going to be working with people in different industries, they will have different issues, different problems, different jargon, different ways of doing things and different service needs. So, trying to create marketing material that is relevant to everyone is almost impossible.

By being selective about whom you help, and about the specialist services that you offer, you can target your marketing material accordingly.

To put this into context, let’s go over some numbers. There are hundreds of thousands of small businesses in the UK, and the number increases on a daily basis. So, ask yourself how many of these can you realistically have as clients. We are not superhuman, so I imagine you would agree that you could not work with all of them. But, if you narrow it down to a specific type of industry (maybe a few thousand companies), would you be able to work with one per cent of this market? Now the figure becomes far more manageable and achievable.